sit down have a chat

MOFFAT

the town to stop off at

Undertaking a project that focuses on sustainable rural development, myself and my lovely co-working partner in collaboration decided it was time to do some proper field research. So we hired a car and headed on the road west to experience the rural for ourselves.

Having passed through Moffat this summer on my way home from a hike up the Gray Mare's Tale (a National Trust hike with a mystical glacial lake at the top) the town made a fantastic impression on me. A pub serving baked potatoes and a good glass of guinness will tickle my fancy on the best of cold days, but to witness the spectacle of a whole town heaving with people out for the annual Sheep Race really was something else. Cue the one main street of the town barricaded off and rounds of six sheep running the length of the street with miniature knitted jockeys strapped to their backs, with locals cheering on waving their betting tickets in good humoured £1.00 a piece gambling. Yes, this is indeed the reason why we went back. They seemed to have a solid tourism structure in place, a strong sense of community and events and run on the time of volunteers - the exact criteria on our list of things we needed to find out. And why, for three days and three nights we met with some of the most interesting characters who make the town what it is and who were as kind as to give us so much of their time and assistance. 

Doing work and being in the countryside at the same time? #dreamlife.  

the basket weaving circle

It was the first Saturday in October and a crisp autumn day. I took the bus from Edinburgh along by the coast to a small town called Tranent to participate in a basket weaving workshop. Generally categorised as an old-folks activity, traditional handcrafts are actually, in fact, just that. My twenty-something year old self showed up to the given address and found there a small gathering of ladies well past their forties, each holding a cup of tea. All the boxes ticked? Yep. However, as an unashamed fan of aformentioned pensioner-style pastimes, I really enjoyed my time there.

The sun came up enough that once the morning had passed, it was surprisingly warm. We therefore decided to relocate ourselves from the workroom and place ourselves and our willow outside for the remainder of the day. Provided with endless cups of tea that were drank mostly out of politeness to our host, I concentrated in silence enjoying listening to the real, live BBC radio 4 happening around me.

To watch something that you are making grow right in front of your eyes through a meditative passage of time is a satisfaction I wish everyone could have the good fortune of experiencing. My own final basket is one called a 'Mudag' style. It's woven but not yet photographed... looks a bit like an egg.